A council competition is offering free VIP tickets to All Points East festival in Victoria Park – even though it doesn't yet have planning permission.
A planning application by events company AEG Presents to use the park is still pending at Tower Hamlets Council. Yet tickets are already on sale – and the council is offering two in a competition for residents.
A council spokesperson said there is a clear separation between its work with AEG Presents and its role in determining planning applications.
AEG Presents wants planning permission to use Victoria Park for up to 75 days a year for the next six years. This is to allow it to hold All Points East, LIDO festival, and a community festival, including time spent setting up and taking down the festival sites.
The organiser says this isn't an intensification on its previous use of the park, and there will be a break of at least 28 days between the two festivals in which Victoria Park would be returned to public use.
However, some people living nearby say the proposals are a totally disproportionate loss of a public amenity.
The council's planning website says it aims to determine the application by September 1. It also shows the council has received at least 86 comments on the application from the public. Yet tickets for the festival – due to take place in August – are already on sale. And the council itself is offering two of them in a competition.
A council spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the competition helped to promote engagement with residents, and that festivals in Victoria Park deliver a wide range of benefits. They added that the council's planning department would determine the application independently.
Planning law says decisions can only be made on the basis of planning policy, regardless of who the applicant is, or who might financially benefit.
The spokesperson said: "Victoria Park's major events programme delivers a wide range of benefits for residents and businesses. These include free festival days called In the Neighbourhood which uses the infrastructure from the ticketed events to accommodate a host of community activities and a platform for local artists and local businesses.
They also provide an income stream which is reinvested into council services including community work, infrastructure improvements and general upkeep and improvements to Victoria Park.
Free tickets are also made available to residents as part of competition draws. These tickets, which are provided free of charge by AEG, help to improve resident engagement so more residents know about council and partner services that can benefit them."
They added: "Around two thirds of Victoria Park, including playgrounds, remains open during All Points East, and the footprint for other events such as The Lido is smaller, allowing even greater public access.
There is a clear separation between the council's role as local planning authority and the council's arts, parks and events team working with AEG Presents on the festival plans in Tower Hamlets."
AEG Presents' planning application says it intends to occupy the park for 66 days a year – but wants planning permission for 75 days for important flexibility, particularly with regards to delays due to inclement weather.
It also says that these days won't be consecutive to allow for Victoria Park to return to full public use.
But Mary Pimm, Chair of the Victoria Park Community Association, said the length of time applied for is a totally disproportionate loss of a public amenity.
Speaking on BBC Radio 2 last week she said: "It blocks off a huge part of the park that people can't use for normal things that they use the park for."
AEG Presents did not respond to a request for comment.
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